The First Legendary Beast Master

The ‘Command Tent’ as the General had called it was more of an art gallery of mission posters, Karl realized. Every surface was covered with reports, each of which had a bounty amount listed on the bottom, or a military strategic points value.

Karl wasn’t sure what that meant, but assumed that the reward would come directly from the military for those missions that were closest to the populated areas.

“You can choose what you like from anything on the walls, that’s all nearby, within two hundred kilometres. The map contains more incidents and suspected spawn points, if you want to go further afield and sate the Gods’ bloodlust that way.” The General explained.

Nachtia stared at the sheets on the walls. “This is all within two hundred kilometres? Most of these are military Company sized elements, headed by Overlords or Totems.”

“I am well aware of the situation, thank you. This is what we’re working with. There’s fifty of them to every man in my Regiment, and even the cavalry can’t move fast enough to deal with them all.

Every time that you remove one group, another comes to claim its territory.” The General grumbled.

Nachtia turned to Karl, but he gestured for her to pick. This was her God’s mission, so she should be the one who knew best what was important.

The black dragon’s eyes seemed to absorb the light in the tent as she reached out and grabbed four papers off the walls.

“These four should be all close together. We can start with these, and then come back to pick more.” Nachtia decided.

Karl looked at the sheet and saw that they were all related, but they had been spotted at different locations yesterday.

All four of them detailed groups of small monsters, Mostly Royal Ranked, but with Overlord Ranked leaders.

That seemed like an odd choice for the Black Dragon, but maybe that was a balance thing?

There should be nearly a thousand of the creatures in the groups, as opposed to five or ten per group for most of the Overlord Ranked threats. By pure numbers of excess, these were the largest that Karl could see among the sheets.

“Starting off ambitious, are you? I will warn you, the Rock Goblin Spawn was a nasty one. They’re not normal Goblins, they can use Earth Magic.” The General informed her.

Nachtia nodded. “The Black Dragon insists these need to go.”

She turned to leave, and Dana took one last look before following. Now she understood why they had all been invited into the tent.

If you didn’t see firsthand, you would never believe or understand just how bad the problem was.

Even the four sheets that Nachtia had pulled off the walls hadn’t made a clear spot, just a few gaps between the sheets they had been partially overlapping.

“The location is close, and back to the east. Do you remember that pillar of stone that looked like a phallus? That’s only a few kilometres from where they were seen this morning.” Nachtia explained as she read the details.

Karl nodded. That stone was hard to miss, even from the wagon. Plus, Hawk had relayed details to him all morning, but hadn’t seen the groups.

What he had seen was a number of cave entrances near the base of that stone.

“I think that I know where they are hiding. They were called Rock Goblins, and there are caves at the base of that stone. They were all seen near it, within a kilometre or two. So, they might be one colony, hunting at night.” Karl offered.

Tessa poked Thor in the side. “Tough luck, bud. You’re going to have to fight in human form if we go into a cavern system.”

Thor snorted in amusement. “I will take the left, and you can take the right.”

Karl smiled at their banter. “I will head there now, just wait for me to open another portal. The first one won’t be human-friendly.”

From the ground, he couldn’t see the base of the rock pillar, and Hawk didn’t currently have it in sight to relay the information. So, he would open a portal to the top of the stone, then open another at ground level.

Karl moved away, and the military mages all snapped their attention to the group. Someone who could open portals was incredibly valuable to their efforts, and if these mercenaries could, then they held a much higher worth than their Ranks suggested.

A few Overlords and Monarchs weren’t much of a military asset, by standard calculations. But a mage that could use [Portal] was worth more than dozens of mercenaries who had to travel by land.

A second portal opened a metre away from the first, which then faded away.

Karl was standing on the other side, holding a small black monster corpse by the neck.

“Found them. Come on, let’s get to work.” He laughed.

The General’s aides shook their heads in dismay as the group charged through the portal and into combat with the Rock Goblins.

“General, did you get a good look at that Cat Demon?” One of them whispered once the portal closed.

“The one with the enhanced physique?” The General asked.

The advisor nodded. “Is it wise to trust him? I’ve never seen those system markings on anything but a dungeon boss before. If that thing is some sort of wandering boss spawn, who knows what it’s likely to do once it establishes a territory.”

The stout Dwarven General laughed. “With three different Dragon Gods supervising? No, I think that it’s more likely he’s a favoured champion of the Dragon Church, and he’s got some sort of skill that turned him into an actual monster.

Trust in the Old Gods, they would have sent someone to handle him if he was a threat.”

The advisor wasn’t sure about that. The Old Gods were entirely too hands-off in their management of worldly affairs. If someone managed to sober up a Dungeon Boss and bring it outside, they would likely just laugh and watch.

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